00:00 I would just say not to worry so much. And that brings me to a good quote. It's by Mark Twain. "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened." Right? And I feel like we worry about so many things that could go wrong and could happen, instead of just being in the present moment. 

00:17 And, you know, I think growing up in many moments, I was very worried about, you know, this or that or, you know, the tenant issues. And now I've learned to just kind of be in the present and handle the issues as they come along with ease. 

00:32 And so it just becomes a lot easier that way. 
-Hello, hello. Welcome to the I Should Have Learned the Sooner Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Winfred. Together, let's take a dive into amazing stories of personal growth as my guests share their answer to the question, "what is something you know now that you wish you had learned sooner?" 

00:56 From overcoming impostor syndrome, investing money lessons, and more. Join me and my guests as they share their stories of challenges they faced head on and how they came out on top. In today's episode, I sit down with Bryan Balducci, who was actually my real estate agent in helping me find my first ever house here in the Denver area back in October of last year. 

01:21 Bryan talks about his background and how not only is he an investor here in the Denver market, but growing up, he actually learned about money at a young age, and did Dave Ramsay's Financial Peace University at eleven years old with his parents. 

01:38 That's so amazing to me because I didn't even think about money at that age, except for the fact that it would get me some Pokemon cards. So it's fun to hear Bryan's story, how he grew up with frugal parents and he bought his first property at 22 years old. 

01:57 Bryan's story is just super inspiring because there's so much that he's done to set himself up for success in the long term. Not only does he own properties, but he is working in the real estate market as an agent as well. 

02:11 And he brought a lot of really great information to me whenever we were searching for homes. And just in general, he's a staple here in the Denver community. If you go out to any meetups, you're more than likely to meet Bryan. 

02:26 And if you meet him, say hi and let him know you heard this podcast. So without further ado, let's jump right in. Hey, Bryan. How's it going? 
-Hey, what's up, Tim? Good to see you. 
-Yeah, thanks for joining me. 

02:38 Absolutely. 
-I'm excited to have you here. It's been a mission to track you down to get you to do this. 
-Glad to finally make it. 
-You're a busy, popular man. Always got something going on. Yeah. So for people who don't know you, give us a little rundown of who you are. 

02:52 Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, my name is Bryan Balducci. I'm an investor-friendly realtor with the Fi team and EXP realty. So we help other investors and first time home buyers get homes and investment properties. 

03:04 So house hacks and duplexes, fourplexes. So, yeah, that's what we do. It's great. 
-And you were also my real estate agent. 
-Yes, that's true. We got you a great property. 
-Yeah. Helped me find my place here. I heard you pronounce your last name different way than you normally pronounce it. 

03:22 Is that what we're going with nowadays, Balducci? 
-Yeah. So they took out the C and replaced it with a K in Ellis Island. That's how I'm pronouncing it. 
-All right, I got to put my fingers in front and talk with my hands whenever I say your last. 

03:38 Exactly. All right, so let's go ahead and jump right into the first question here. So what is something you know now that you wish you had learned sooner? 
-Oh, man. Just one? 
-Maybe if we start with one, we can go down a couple. 

03:54 I'm sure you have. 
-All right. I guess a big one. And going back to a quote by Les Brown, love that guy. "Do what is easy, and your life will be hard. Do what is hard, and your life will be easy." So that really resonates with me, because I think going through school, getting into college, I was kind of looking for that easy job, that easy W-2. 

04:13 And that's what I thought would be great and comfortable. And as I have developed, obviously, I've experienced the 1099 world, and it's a completely different world, but it's difficult. Right? So learning that it's more important to do the difficult thing instead of go for the easy thing, and that's just going to help your life in your future. 

04:32 Yeah, it's sort of front loading. You know? 
-Right. 
-I think that's the financial independence movement in general, the whole idea is do the hard thing up front and then so that you can smooth sail at the end. 
-Absolutely. 

04:47 You're always traveling and stuff. I'm curious, is that something you've set up for yourself? Have you taken, like, a bit of a harder route to get to the lifestyle you're in now? 
-Yeah, I would say that I did sacrifice a lot growing up, especially when I got into my W-2, just when it came to frugality and saving money, to the point where it did become a little too much. 

05:09 We all went through it, right? Eating Chef Boyardee and macaroni and cheese every night to save a buck. But I went with that for a pretty long time, and so I think I got to a point where I had enough saved and I could start making those investments, and then I let off the leash a little bit, as you will. 

05:27 Okay. So did you have a budget tracker? How did you keep track of your money in order To save up and invest and know that you weren't spending too much on food. I mean, aside from the fact that you were eating Chef Boyardee. 

05:41 Yeah, I would say that my budget was basically save as much as I possibly can. It wasn't a simple, like, this number is what I'm going to save. It was like, hey, how much can I possibly save? Let me go as minimal as I can this week, this month, and see what I can do. 

05:56 So it was definitely it was difficult. And I definitely said "no" to a lot of experiences, but I said yes to a lot of future experiences. I would think. But there's a balance, right? You don't want to just stay inside all the time because you're trying to save money. 

06:10 You do want to go out and have those experiences. And there was a point in my life where I really was just staying inside or just saving money and finding out ways to make more. 
-That's hard for me to imagine because I've only known you for a little less than a year, and you are like, I feel like your energy thrives around people. 

06:29 You're an extrovert where, me, I have to go back home and charge and get away from people. I feel like you get charged up being around people. So I can't imagine you sitting at home and not doing anything. 

06:39 Well, it's not like I just sat at home, but even when I did go out, I would just save money and find ways to, for instance, pregame before you go to the bar or something. That way, you're not spending too much on drinks. 

06:51 Drinking out is expensive. 
-Yeah, right, exactly. I still found ways to have fun, but I did save a lot of money doing it. 
-So for anybody who is sort of in this phase, maybe they're not quite at the point where they're able to do the things that they want to do or early in their investing and living. 

07:12 frugally, what are some things that you did? I mean, you mentioned, like, drinking before you went out, but did you have friends over, eat in more? What were some of the more common things that reduced your expenses? 

07:26 Yeah, definitely. I would say eating in more, for sure. Doing backyard barbecues. So that was a lot cheaper. Right? Because you could just order a bunch of burgers for a dollar a burger or whatever it is, and grill those up, and then you're buying beer for a dollar a beer. 

07:40 Yeah. Doing things like that. And then just not going to as many concerts and I guess, movies or things where you'd spend money. Right? Not going out to dinner all the time, so, yeah, absolutely. 
-Really awesome. 

07:52 And I guess, how did you learn about this path? What inspired you to do this? And what brought you to the point of wanting to do the hard thing so that you could have an easy life? 
-Yeah, I mean, part of it was how I was raised. 

08:07 I definitely was raised up pretty frugally by my parents, and so I learned how to save money very young. I remember saving as a child, even. Every $5 that I had, I was selling my toys to my brother. I was definitely frugal, and that was my upbringing, so it kind of kept going with me. 

08:25 And then especially getting into my first property, that was very expensive. And so I had to live very frugally, living in that first property because the mortgage was just kind of a big hit on my income. 

08:37 Yeah. How old were you whenever you bought your first property? 
-I was 22.  
-Wow. 
-Yeah, exactly. So I was young, and I didn't realize how much it would really cost. And I don't know if I've told you that story, but that's when I started airbnb-ing out my studio apartment or my studio condo because the mortgage was so expensive, and I would just go to my place and stay on his couch. 

08:59 So you bought the place, were you still living there? And then you just dip out for a little to subsidize your mortgage? 
-Exactly. Yeah, I leave for a week, or I'd leave for a weekend and just rent out the place for $150 a night. 

09:16 And that was definitely really helpful at the time. 
-This was just in Denver? Were there no regulations at the time? So it was sort of like the wild west. 
-There were. There were HOA regulations and I just didn't really follow along with those regulations, but eventually they did put up signs. 

09:32 So I only did this for about eight months before got you. Yeah. There's that old adage, ask for permission or ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Right? 
-Yes, absolutely. 
-I jokingly say it's only illegal if you get caught, so don't take advice from me on what's legal and not. 

09:50 I'm interested -- So you mentioned something that kind of stood out to me, which was you're selling toys to your brother at a young age, so it sounds like the mentality of having frugal parents. And what did you do? 

10:04 Did that mindset of saving and did you save up money or did you just trade him? Was it a barter system, is that what you meant? 
-No, I sold him for whatever money he had and whatnot whether that be like a dollar or $2. 

10:17 Yeah, I was making money for sure. 
-And did you talk about money with your parents a lot whenever you were younger, or was it something that was like in my taboo? 
-We were pretty open about it and we did the whole... what is his name? 

10:31 We did the whole workshop with Dave. 
-Dave Ramsay, Financial Peace University. 
-Dave Ramsay. Yes. So I did that and at a really young age, I was like eleven years old. 
-Wow. 
-Right? 
-Wow. That's crazy. 
-So, of course, like the emergency savings thing, that stuck with me growing up, and I always had something on the side. 

10:50 And so you saved up eventually. So at eleven you did Financial Peace University. When did you start saving and how long did it take you to save for that first property? 
-So that first property was a creative financed property. 

11:06 So actually. Basically saw it with my parents. We saw it, it was really cheap and we put an offer in and basically the deal was: they'd buy it for me, they'd help me out, and then basically they'd refinance and then put it in my name. 

11:19 So that's what we did. And it was a great deal. Obviously I'm very lucky to have parents that were super supportive about me getting my first place. The deal was cheap, we got it for 160K, so it was great. 

11:29 It just worked out. 
-Awesome. There's sort of this stigma around what am I thinking of generational wealth? There's a stigma around it and often people who are trying to build up wealth themselves, what are they trying to build it for? 

11:45 Which is generally generational wealth. Right? 
-Absolutely. 
-It's so interesting to me how there's sort of a stigma around it, but it's also really interesting that your parents -- it sounds like your parents took you on that journey with them. 

11:59 Do you know if prior to Financial Peace University and taking you with them, were they already on a financial journey? I mean, you were eleven, so I can't imagine too much was going on in that area, but sounds like maybe they talked to you about it a lot more than most families. 

12:16 Well, absolutely. So my parents came from a pretty rough spot actually, where they didn't have any money. We came from New York and they were in the projects and basically making less than $16,000 a year, back in those times. 

12:28 So they definitely I saw kind of like, you know, their growth as they kind of came to Colorado and got better jobs and then got raises. As they grew too, they did have a couple of rental properties on the side. 

12:41 So they would buy a property, and we'd live there, and then we would move out, and then they'd rent out that property for a bit. Now, they never really had more than one or two, but I did grow up watching that and seeing that and it made total sense to me. 

12:54 Yeah, it's one of those things. It makes sense now to me. Moreso, like why you were able to get your property so young. Even with the assist with your parents. Your parents set you up and did the hard thing. 

13:09 And now I'm sure they're probably sailing really nicely as well and going on probably more trips than you are, I'd assume. 
-Absolutely. They're kind of home bodies, but they got their place in Florida. 

13:20 They've done short-term rental investments and whatnot. So they short-term rent out their place over there. Snowbirds. They're doing good. 
-Yeah. Interesting. So most people that I've met, generally, it's like they're the first person in their family to go through it. 

13:36 What has been your experience meeting people, or what is something major that you took from your parents that you notice that a lot of people who are experiencing themselves don't or haven't learned yet? 

13:49 Is there anything that stands out? 
-I would just say just going back to Rich Dad, Poor Dad and just assets versus liabilities. That stuck with me at a young age, and they educated me on that. And just not everybody thinks about that. 

14:01 If you have a certain amount of stock or a certain amount of properties that can pay for your liabilities. That's what we're all trying to achieve. Right, is we're trying to create these investments that pay for our lifestyle. 

14:11 So that stuck with me my entire life. 
-Yeah. The whole assets... buy assets that pay for your liabilities is even something that people who have been investing for a while still don't take into consideration. 

14:24 They want to buy a new car. And nowadays, with car payments being so high... 
-Absolutely. 
-You could take that twenty K and put it into a down payment on a house and cash flow. A couple of $100s. 20K on a down payment might be somewhere in the Midwest, but it's possible. 

14:41 Right. Are you only investing in the Denver area? 
-Yeah, yeah, I've got all my properties in the Denver Metro. And are they a mix of short term, long term, midterm? 
-Exactly. Yeah. I've got one short term, two midterms and two long terms. 

14:57 And you've had some pretty epic sort of... I'm trying to think of the best way to put this. Some epic issues with some tenants who stayed in your house, in your houses as short-term rentals. 
-After you've been doing it for seven, eight years. 

15:14 You're going to have a few of those. I've had at least five terrible tenant stories. I can start to run a book, really, about just the issues I've seen and the problems and experiences, lessons I've learned along the way, because that's what it's about. 

15:30 And when I first got started, I didn't have the resources that are available now, such as Bigger Pockets and these videos and stuff on YouTube. I didn't really know about what was out there. And so I really did kind of swing at the hip. 

15:43 I mean, you said you only had five really big or five that stand out as negative, and you've had how many guests, right? 
-Hundreds. Right? Hundreds, absolutely. 
-So it's like a fraction, would you say, the overall benefit? 

15:58 I'm assuming so. First of all, let me step one, step back. Have those issues been primarily or only with the short-term rental? 
-No, I wouldn't say so. I've had a few issues with the short term rental, but then I've also had some issues with the long term. 

16:11 And the issues come about, and sometimes they don't for months at a time. And sometimes it hits you all at once. 
-When it rains at pours. 
-Yeah, absolutely. But it's all balanced out. 
-I mean, clearly you keep doing it and you keep wanting to invest. 

16:25 What's your long term strategy for it? Are you going to get 100 doors? What's the end game? 
-Yeah, I'm not actually trying to scale to 100 doors, and I don't think it's really about a number. I think it's about more. 

16:38 What's comfortable for you? Financial independence number. So, yes, a number, but more of a passive income number and not a number of properties. So only if I could have five or six properties in cash flow, a decent amount, that's great. 

16:50 And that might be enough for you. It's really up to you and your goals. And my goals don't align with having 300 properties or so. We'll see. Goals change and we'll see what happens. But right now it's just about focusing on the investments I have and scaling but not scaling too quickly. 

17:09 And do you manage them all yourself or do you have help with that? 
-I don't. I manage most of them myself. I manage four out of five myself. And then the fifth I do have a property manager for. So yeah, just have friend of mine that started a company and he's been helping me out with that one because that was kind of the property I didn't really want to deal with. 

17:30 So sort of the same question for the podcast but wrapped in the managing your own properties and the experiences you face with that, what's something, you know now that maybe you wish you could go back and tell your younger self or something that you just want to, in general, share with the people who are listening? 

17:48 I would just say not to worry so much. And that brings me to a good quote. It's by Mark Twain. "I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened." Right? And I feel like we worry about so many things that could go wrong and could happen instead of just being in the present moment. 

18:05 And I think growing up in many moments, I was very worried about this or that or the tenant issues. And now I've learned to just kind of be in the present and handle the issues as they come along with ease. 

18:21 And so it just becomes a lot easier that way. 
-It's fascinating because I don't see you -- I know I haven't known you for too long, but I've never seen you as the sort of person to worry. So to hear you say that you worried, what were the things you worried about in particular? 

18:37 Because I'm getting ready myself, as you know, to rent out part of my house and eventually move out of it and have tenants in it. It's hundreds of thousands of dollars of a property. Yeah, I've got a lot of worries. 

18:53 So come on, give me some therapy here. How can I not worry? 
-I mean, worries all around, right? So it's worries before you're buying that property. I mean, obviously be cautious, but being so worried that something could go wrong days before. 

19:08 I know you've had sleepless nights, right? You have those sleepless nights because you're worrying about things that could happen or things that could go wrong. And so you're not in the present moment. 

19:16 You're thinking about things that might not even happen. So it's actually just wasted energy. And then that goes just with anything. I'm a realtor, so if I'm doing a transaction and worrying about something that maybe the agent said or something that's happening within the transaction, then it's not going to help anybody. 

19:33 Right? So, yeah, just not worrying about things and just being cautious, too, because it is important. Worrying is important because you want to be cautious. But actual worrying, it sucks your energy. 

19:45 Yeah. I think it's okay to -- what you said is basically stay in the present, but you should be thinking about the future. I think the bigger point here is not to ruminate on things that are out of your control. 

19:59 Absolutely. 
-Because whenever I rent out to someone, there could be 100,000, a million things that could go wrong. And if I sat here and just thought about what I would do in each one of those situations, that's the ruminating that tears you down and prevents you from doing things. 

20:18 Yeah, for sure. 
-It's interesting inviting strangers into your home. That you don't know.
-I know what you mean. 
-You've had a lot of experience with that. And something you had told me at one point is, as an airbnb rental, you will never again rent to someone who does not have a rating. 

20:38 Right? Because you had some bad experiences with new guests. 
-I mean, that's a tough one, right? Because. When you're hurting and it's a slow season and booking comes in, you're like, oh, do I take the money? 

20:49 It's really hard to know. But yeah. I have had some guests with no ratings that have been horrible. That being said, I've even had a couple of guests with pretty good ratings that have also been bad. 

21:00 So yes and no. I'll say. 
-So to flip it on its head. So we talked about how to reduce anxiety, basically, around doing it. What are things to improve the success of it? Of renting out airbnbs, of long term, whatever the strategy is. 

21:17 Just owning properties and managing them. 
-Yeah, I would just say dialing in your systems and then also just getting used to it. Right? Because, I mean, after a couple of years, you just kind of get used to the issues that happen and you get used to responding to these issues and just having the people at hand that you need, such as your handyman and your cleaner, and just having those people at your dial. 

21:39 Right? So that anybody could come help you out. And that's the most important thing. 
-This is probably going to age me by calling it this, but it's like having your Rolodex, right? Like all your contacts so you can flip through it. 

21:51 Right. 
-My parents still have one of those, to be clear, and a house phone, which I don't know many people who do that. Yeah, it's true. So you said dial in your systems. I think it's a common thing. Like once you do it -- what do they say? 

22:07 It's like once you do it so much that it gets boring. You know you're succeeding. Something like that. It's basically once it gets to a point where you have all your systems and all your processes fine tuned and dialed and it's like you're just on repeat, rinse and repeat. 

22:22 It's like that's the flywheel of effect. It's just going. Do you feel like you still have a lot to learn? 
-Absolutely, yeah. I think even if I were to be 20 years in, I still have a lot to learn. There's so much to learn in this business, for sure. 

22:39 So I'm constantly learning. 
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-All right, well, I feel like you've already dropped two quotes, so this next question is going to be -- I'm going to skip the part where it says quote and go. 

23:32 Unless you have a third quote. 
-Yeah, that's fine. 
-So for the second question, is there something, a book, a quote, a person, song, city, job conversation, something like that, that's really impacted or inspired your life? 

23:45 Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I guess I would say Set for Life by Scott Trench and the House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop. I think those are two books that I picked up. The first two books I picked up when I was getting into real estate and I resonate with Craig Curelop because he was also doing the house hacking thing. 

24:02 And this was one of the first podcasts, actually, that I watched with Craig Curelop on Bigger Pockets and talking about house hacking and living behind a curtain. And at that time I just stayed up on my buddy's couch and now I was

24:15 doing an airbnb at my town home and renting out the rooms. I felt that, and I was just like, "wow, there's other people doing that." And then I started watching the podcast and getting really connected to everyone in the Bigger Pockets community, and that was life changing for sure, just to have those resources available. 

24:32 Definitely excited for the conference coming up, and I've been doing the last two conferences and those have been a lot of fun. So, yeah, shout out Bigger Pockets. 
-You're wearing the BP Con 22 shirt. 

24:43 Even I know people can't see it, but I noticed that immediately. You do have a lot of clothes that are like real estate. I think you have a hat as well, right? 
-Absolutely. 
-What does the hat say? Remind me. 

24:55 I love cash flow. 
-I love cash flow. There you go. Speaking of, do you cash flow on all of your properties? 
-I don't on all of them. I do on four of them. So my condo is a 15-year lease loan, so I am breaking even on that condo, but I'm okay to do so. 

25:13 Got you. Interesting. Yeah. Sorry, a little bit of a tangent, but with going back to the house hacking book so you were sort of doing it before it had that definition. I feel like Bigger Pockets coined the term "house hacking." 

25:28 Yeah, correct. Yeah, before I even knew it was called house hacking. Right. I was doing that and just calling it something else. And then once I saw these videos, I was like, "wow, that's exactly what I'm doing." 

25:38 And that is super exciting. And I haven't read Scott Trench's book, Set for Life, but does he talk about house hacking and real estate in there as well? 
-He does, yeah. So he combines it all. So he combines retirement accounts and stock investing, index investing. 

25:54 So he kind of just it all together. It's definitely really good for -- especially people who are just trying to get an introductory to financial independence, financial freedom. Great book to start with. 

26:04 So to go back to your initial lesson, which is doing the easy thing leads to a hard life and vice versa, it sounds like... with you going down the hard route, the hard life route for people who are maybe not as motivated or not as interested in investing in real estate. 

26:22 There's a lot of things right, if I'm not mistaken, in Set for Life that are maybe a little bit easier, they're a little bit slower. But can you talk a little bit about some of the points that stood out to you in Set for Life and the house hacking book? 

26:34 Well, sure, yeah. I would just say that he also talks about retirement account and maxing out your 401ks. Your company gives you a benefit, which is definitely something everyone should do if they are getting a match of any kind and then just using the Roth IRA and the self directed, which you can put into other assets. 

26:53 So those are also very important and good for someone who's maybe just trying to do the slow route and keep working at W-2 and putting money over into their retirement account. It's definitely also a way to gain financial independence. 

27:07 Obviously, as a Realtor, I believe that house hacking and real estate investing is the quickest way to financial independence, but there are many other methods. 
-Have you invested in the market? Wait, actually, I know the answer to this question. 

27:19 You do short stocks, right? 
-Yeah, I do kind of a mix of selling puts and calls options. I trade stocks, but mostly just options. And that's kind of something that I've been learning about going forward is just I've been doing it for about four or five years now, and there's still just so much to learn in options trading. 

27:41 It's a lot of fun. I enjoy it and I do it daily. It's just another tool in the tool belt. 
-I feel like it's fascinating. I feel like we've only been chatting for about 30 minutes, and if I were to keep track of all of the financial buzzwords or financial terminology, someone who has never heard of anything is going to be so confused by this episode. 

28:05 There's so much going on. 
-They can hit me up later and get some explanations. 
-Start with Set For life, right? By Scott Trench. 
-Yeah, exactly. 
-A great place to start, as I've heard. It's similar, if I'm not mistaken, to sort of like the Dave Ramsay strategy, which is where I started, which is to save up. 

28:23 So the Dave Ramsay baby steps, I only got through the first two, I believe, maybe not even completely through the first through the second one. But for those who are unfamiliar, save $1,000, then pay off all of your debt except for your mortgage. 

28:36 And step three is save up three to six months, or six to twelve. I think it's three to six months of an emergency fund and then it goes into investment strategies beyond that. Is it a similar framework in Scott's book? 

28:49 I don't know. I wouldn't compare them as similar because Scott's book goes more into also house hacking, his experience with house hacking and then just index fund investing and whatnot. I would say they're a little different, just in mindset and whatnot. 

29:04 Yeah, Dave Ramsay is all about the debt free life and not leveraging yourself and buying a car with cash. It's sort of conflictory, if that's a word, to the Rich Dad, Poor Dad mentality that we chatted about earlier, using your assets to pay for your liabilities. 

29:22 So with Craig's book on house hacking, was there something that you picked up from that in particular because you were already house hacking before that, was there something that you learned from the book or something that stood out that other people who've maybe already house hacked or are thinking about it? 

29:38 Yeah, I would just say overall, I really resonated with his story and just his idea of just buying a property every single year and using that 3% down and then really going through the numbers and showing how this could be 110% cash on cash. 

29:51 Right. Because if you put $25,000 on a property and then you rent out the rooms and cover $2000, it's like you make your money back in one year. So just really putting the numbers out there and having something to go over for tips and whatnot when it comes to vetting tenants, having concrete leases, just everything. 

30:09 This story was awesome. 
-Awesome. And for those at home who are playing financial bingo, add cash on cash and leases too. Don't forget to hit that. All right. I want to go ahead and continue on. I'm going to sort of look forward since I know you said you like to stay in the present, but you said something about buying a house every year. 

30:36 I'm assuming that's in your strategy for looking forward, but before I get to the last question about what you're learning, I'm sort of just curious what your strategy or plan is moving forward. 

30:46 Yeah, so I'll continue that strategy of buying a property every year, and then I do want to scale into multifamily eventually. I just don't think I'm ready for that yet. I can only bit off so much. 

30:57 So right now, I'm sticking to my rentals. I'm focusing on those. I'm focusing on being a realtor and helping other people reach financial independence, which is a big passion of mine, and I absolutely love what I do. 

31:07 So I'd say that. I would say really focusing on helping other people right now that I've reached financial independence and I know where I'm headed, it's time to help other people get to that point. 
-Yeah. 

31:19 I remember whenever we were looking for a house together, I leaned on you a lot because it was my first one. A big reason that I don't know if I had mentioned this to you, but a big reason that I did decide to go with you and honestly didn't even look for other people once we had chatted is just because you had the experience and you've done it so many times. 

31:38 And there's a lot of people who are agents who are non-investors themselves. And my strategy was to find a property that I could house hack. 
-Yeah, absolutely. 
-And it's definitely something... walk the walk, I think is the term I'm thinking of. 

31:55 So how many people do you think you've helped out? 
-Estimate, I'd say like 25, 30 different parties at this point, maybe a little bit more. 
-Oh, you mean like directly with buying a house? 
-What do you mean exactly? 

32:10 Just like with the house hacking strategy and everything. You go to so many meetups and I can only imagine that you've inspired probably tens of thousands of people. 
-Oh, gosh, yeah. Hard to keep track of that. 

32:24 I have no idea. Obviously there are other people with a bigger name when it comes to influencing and whatnot, but I try to do my best and talk to who I can. 
-And if anybody wants to find Bryan in person, little shout out. 

32:38 What is it, the third Wednesday, fourth Wednesday. 
-Fourth Wednesday of every month at 6 To 9:00 p.m at Joyride Brewery. 
-Yeah. He's got a house hacking meet up called the Sloans Lake House Hackers meet up, I believe, something like that. 

32:53 And you can come and you get a free beer and potentially win an investment book in a raffle, so anybody who's in the Denver area come out to that. 
-It's a great time. Appreciate the plug. 
-Yeah. Well, Danielle and I, as I told you in the last episode, we talked about you a lot and it tends to happen. 

33:10 Bryan's the sort of guy that you can go to a place and he's not even there and people are talking about him positively, in a good way. 
-Yeah, that's good to hear. 
-Your reputation will precede you in a lot of rooms. 

33:25 Appreciate that. 
-I know I've told you this, but the way that I was introduced to you is I went to an event and was like, yeah, I'm looking for an agent, I'm looking for a lender. And Kim Johnson pointed you out and said, "hey, you got to talk to that guy." 

33:39 And I didn't get to talk to you at that event, but you were at the next event. So if you don't get a chance to talk to talk to Bryan at one event, you can find him at the next one. 
-Absolutely. Or just give me a call. 

33:51 True. Yeah. What is your favorite thing about going to those meetups? 
-Yeah. I'd say connecting with other people, like minded people, that's so important. And just being able to kind of nerd out on real estate with other real estate nerds. 

34:03 That's fun. Yeah, it's fun. 
-Are there any specific stories or moments from a meet up that really stand out or impacted... sort of from the same question, another experience that really impacted your life? 

34:20 Oh, gosh, I'd say so many experiences, right? Just meeting great people that I ended up working with and helping them with their real estate needs. Gosh, I can't even put one on a pedestal, right? They've all just been great stories, but you're really just meeting with people and then ending up being able to help them out with a sale or something. 

34:38 I think that's just so amazing to be able to do that.
-And vice versa. Right. You help a lot of people out, as I've mentioned, and you get a lot of people. It's not like the reason and strategy of you going to those is not like to have this backlog of people who owe you for all the advice you gave or something like that. 

34:57 No, absolutely not. 
-Yeah, you get the opportunity to meet a lot of people and learn from them and lean on each other for investment strategies and shoot, I've learned so much just from Seth, for example, at your meetup. 

35:11 He's pretty much there all the time talking about subject two and just dropping so many bombs of truth. 
-Yeah, exactly. Just bringing so many brains together, right? So that we all of our issues together and just have resources and that's what it's about. 

35:26 Networking is so powerful and just having friends that are doing it and rooting for you. It's huge. 
-Yeah, it's sort of like what you said about the house hacker book. It's like, "wow, there were people who were doing the same thing I've been doing." 

35:39 It's how I felt. Part of the reason that I moved to Denver was I went to events whenever I was here this last summer and just was like, "wow, there's so many people who care about and are interested in this." 

35:52 And once, you know. A lot of you have become friends of mine that we have the same birthday. 
-Yes. We got a great crowd out here in Denver, and it's a great place to connect with other investors. And Denver is kind of a hub for financial dependence and financial freedom. 

36:13 There's a lot of people who are into it. 
-Yeah, the Bigger Pockets community or the Bigger -- I guess the headquarters or a lot of the people who work with Bigger Pockets are located out here. If you listen to any of the BP podcasts, you can go to events regularly, and they'll pop up. 

36:30 And I remember Mindy Jensen from the Bigger Pockets Money Show showed up at one of the badass events. And a lot of people, one wouldn't know who she was if she walked into your average room. But an event like that, she's a celebrity in that sort of room. 

36:50 And I definitely geeked out a bit. 
-Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah. It's so fun to see just these inspirational people. They're kind of like our celebrities as real estate nerds or as Bigger Pockets community members. 

37:04 And whatnot. 
-Has there been someone that you saw that maybe stands out as someone you freaked out about or got excited about? 
-Well, I think Brandon Turner just kind of going through all the podcasts with Brandon Turner when he was at the host, I kind of geeked out overseeing him at the conference in San Diego, actually. 

37:23 I'm sorry. The one in New Orleans. I saw him there, too. But yeah, you kind of geek out a little bit overseeing somebody like that. And he's a charismatic character, but David Green, too, is cool to see him and whatnot and plenty of other people as well. 

37:37 Yeah. So one question that I've asked a previous guest that sort of just popped up right now, that is something I continue to struggle with. This is definitely a tangent from what we were just talking about, but the way my brain works sometimes goes like that. 

37:50 You've invested in a lot of properties. And you make money off of it. There's sort of a millennial/Gen Z mindset of being a landlord or property owner who rents out to people and makes money off of the little guy's back. 

38:06 It's not moral. So how do you see the morality of what you're doing? And I don't know. I personally coming from a poorer family. This is where it's coming from. I've leaned into that mindset in some ways, so I think it's caused me to keep myself down a bit. 

38:22 Yeah, for sure. I mean, people need housing, that's for sure. And when I was doing rent-by-the-room especially, I'm providing affordable housing. That's awesome. It feels great to provide affordable housing. 

38:34 Right. For somebody in Denver who doesn't want to pay 1600 for a condo and they can pay $800 for one of my rooms, that's amazing to be able to help them. And they are very appreciative. It's amazing to see and then just even renting properties out fully to families. 

38:49 These families, they obviously can't buy a property, right? And if they could, they would, or they have reasons why they don't want to. So we're providing housing for these people. Right? And there's many reasons why you would just rent. 

38:59 You could be traveling the world, you could be going across the country or something, and you just need a place to stay for a few months. There's people that come out here on nursing contracts, travel nurses, and whatnot, and they just need three months, four months of housing. 

39:12 They don't want to buy a house. Doesn't make sense for them. So being able to provide that, it's rewarding. And it should be, because with it comes issues, as we talked about. 
-Yeah. And as a first time home buyer, it's not just the issues, but it's just the regular, everyday maintenance and upkeep. 

39:31 And whenever you go from from renting a room in a place because that's where your income could be... That's what your income afforded you -- to buying a house and having all this extra land. And there's just so much to it that I think a lot of people who... 

39:53 Not saying people don't want to own a home, but people who think they do don't take into consideration all of those aspects that go into it. I was talking with my neighbor the other day, and I was just telling her how difficult it was for me to have the house that I'm in, and she's like, yeah, I've got my two kids, and they're adults, and even the three of us, it's like it's still difficult to maintain and upkeep. 

40:22 It's like an ongoing thing. And so, yeah, I think being a landlord and providing that as a service as well... it's a service to people who are looking to find a beautiful place to live in. They don't have to take care of all of those things. 

40:38 It's needed, for sure. 
-Yeah. Though I hope they shovel their snow. 
-Yes. 
-I've heard horror stories about that being out in Denver now. Yeah, well, or hire somebody to do it. Yeah, definitely done, though. 

40:51 All right, well, we're coming up on the last several minutes of this, and I want to get to the last question. This sort of leans into the future thinking and well, actually, the present. It's more of a question about the present, but what is something you're working on learning now? 

41:05 Yeah, for sure. I would say the big thing right now is work/life balance. It's easy to work all day, and it's easy to put off other things, and so just having that work life balance is so important, and I think that's a reason I became a realtor, for sure. 

41:19 But as many realtors know, work/life balance isn't always a thing. They tend to intermingle a lot, too, which is totally fine. I love that part about it, but just being able to go out and really have that time to travel, as you know, and go places and, you know, I want to go to Thailand for a month, for instance, so, yeah. 

41:39 And, you know, I think I'm doing a pretty good job, you know, I think I am. So just continuing on that on that trajectory, continuing to but to balance out my life. 
-Yeah, you definitely, I mean, as we talked about, go to meetups and those are like social events and they're fun, but it's also work. 

41:55 There's a lot of things that you do and especially being an agent, it's very easy to never turn off that clock because you're always needing to be attached to your phone and people need something from you at 10:00 PM. 

42:09 Yeah, absolutely. 
-What is a strategy you've used in order to reduce the amount of work or ensure that you're getting your work done while also providing yourself that downtime? 
-Yeah, I would say just batching my work. 

42:24 So just doing big lumps of work in spurts of a couple of hours, I think that's really helpful. Right? Because then I have time for the gym, I have time to get out in nature, do other things, but then I'm just batching that work and trying to get it done as efficiently as possible. 

42:39 I think that's huge. And then just setting stuff on your schedule, right? Just forcing yourself to go to that concert or to go out and go to that birthday party or something and just making it a point to go. 

42:50 Yeah. Sometimes you can get so wore out from the day working whenever you've had a busy day or the week, working and then you have the time off and you relax, which is great. I'm definitely down for having like a do-nothing weekend. 

43:05 Doesn't happen very often, but making sure that sometimes have to force yourself to go to the social event because you've messaged me a couple of times and I've been like, "oh yeah, I forgot." And it's true, generally because it's not in my calendar, but half the time I'm like, Well, I'll just go anyways, I forgot about it and let me just sort myself out because otherwise it's just work that day. 

43:32 Yeah, exactly. It's an experience missed, it's a conversation missed. Everyone needs their downtime. Absolutely. But when you can make it out and have that experience, I think I never regret it, really.

43:44 Yeah. Is there a timeline that you have, like, I personally, for myself, would like to, by the time I'm 50, at the latest, be fully able to have my time free from what I would call work. Right? I will probably still be working on projects, don't get me wrong, but things that are hard to find, especially by someone else... projects. 

44:11 Is there a timeline that you have that you would like to sort of have more of the life balance instead of the work balance? 
-I wouldn't say there's really a timeline because I'll always be doing what I'm doing and I love doing what I'm doing. 

44:25 So it's more about continuing to just to balance it out and force myself to go on those vacations. And as long as I do that and I have plenty of time and delegate some of the work that I have to do, delegate some of that when I am on vacation, I should be able to do this for a long time and continue to do what I love. 

44:43 So really no timeline on stopping, but definitely continuing on that financial independence path and seeing where it takes me. 
-I know this is future thinking, really far in the future, but do you see yourself as like -- because I know how much you enjoy real estate. 

44:58 So do you see yourself in, I don't know, 30 years still helping people purchase homes or properties? 
-Yeah, I'd say... it's fun, for sure. Really? Not everybody says this, but it's not about the money. The money helps and it's great, but it's really about feeling that experience. 

45:16 When someone buys their first home or even another investment property that's going to jump up their income by $500 or $1,000 or month, that's exciting. And that's something that I love to experience and I want to be a part of it whenever possible. So, yeah.

45:31 So to wrap things up, if someone's looking to buy a home for themselves, first-time home buyer and they're looking to house hack, what is one piece of advice? You would have for them getting started and one piece of advice that you would have once they are in the thick of it like looking for the house. 

45:52 Yeah, for sure. I'd say the most important thing is just getting your finances in order, making sure that you have that down payment, making sure that you're talking to a great lender and get you pre-approved. 

46:02 Make sure that's all in order before you go looking for a house. Obviously when you're out looking at house, it's just important to pay close attention to what you're buying and really make sure that you're getting the right deal and that your heart's really in it. 

46:18 Because I know there's plenty of people who buy houses that they're later not so excited about having. So buying the right house right? Not rushing into something is definitely important. But yeah, just get out there and don't give up. 

46:30 Obviously it's a hard market right now so don't stop putting in offers, just keep going and you'll get what you're looking for. 
-Yeah, I think a big part of it too is also like having a strategy, right? 

46:41 House hacking itself isn't I mean it is a strategy but it's not like a fine tuned enough idea. Like you have to know if you're going to be renting by the room. You have to know if you're going to be living in the basement and renting out the top house or buying a duplex and living in one side or the other. 

46:59 So that can really inform what people are looking for as well. 
-Absolutely. And find yourself an investor friendly realtor that knows the strategies and can talk you through it. That way you can narrow down your focus and find what makes sense for you. 

47:13 Yeah, I heard a really great, I guess, analogy or strategy for working with an agent. Whenever you are the person who knows the least, you should find an agent who knows a lot and vice versa whenever you know a lot about what you want. 

47:28 Oftentimes finding someone who's younger and maybe they'll take a lower commission will really benefit them. They'll get the experience and especially -- I don't think you should ever work with someone who has no clue what they're doing. 

47:42 First of all, no, but yeah, it's definitely whenever you don't know a lot, find someone who can balance that out. 
-Absolutely. 
-All right, so before we head out, we already shouted out your Sloans like, house hackers meet up, but if anybody wants to keep up with you, where can they find you and what projects are you working on? 

48:00 Yeah, for sure. Well, you can text me at 720-290-2578 if you're looking for a Denver agent or somebody to talk about house hacking and financial dependence. Would love to chat. Or you could reach out on Instagram. 

48:13 I think that might be the easier way. My name is Bryan Balducci and that's my Instagram name, so it's @Bryanbalducki 
-And it'll be in the show notes. Perfect. Yeah. Reach out. All right, Bryan, thank you so much. 

48:27 This has been really fun. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I appreciate this. Yeah, thanks for sharing all the tips. I definitely, like I said, picked up a lot and there were a lot of buzzwords, so I have some homework to do after this. 

48:37 Absolutely. I'll talk to you soon, Tim. All right, bye. 

"Do the easy thing and you'll live the hard life. Do the hard thing and you'll live the easy life." It resonates with me so much after hearing Bryan say that, and I'm just obsessed because I'm an overthinker, I ruminate too much. 

48:59 And whenever he said, just don't worry so much and stay in the present and dial in your systems and get used to it, all of that just stood out to me so much. And I really appreciated this conversation. 

49:13 I can't wait to see Bryan continue to thrive in the real estate market and I'm super excited. Hear and learn and just continue to grow being around this guy. He is a good friend of mine and he's been there for me in so many different ways over the past almost year that I've known him. 

49:33 And I can't wait to continue growing together with him and thriving. So if you enjoyed this episode, please don't forget to rate and review on Apple podcasts. It will really help me out. And if you have any questions or anything, or you maybe even want to be a guest on the show, hit me up on Instagram or Twitter @contimporary. 

49:54 That's like contemporary, but more fun. Until next time, I'm your host, Tim Winfread. Take care. 

Music for this podcast comes from FilmMusic.IO Acid Trumpet by Kevin McClead, Incompetech.org. Licensed by creativecommons.org/licenses/Buy/4.0.